u/hebrew-hammers

Tried a new spot today and had some luck! Definitely heading back soon to see what else is hiding.

My fiancée helped awaken me to native plants and we have been in the process of transforming our yard into a (mostly) native plant haven. This is year number 3 and things are really starting to come together. We started with the existing garden beds but have steadily been killing off chunks of the grass and creating prairies and planting shrubs/trees to take over (no chemicals!). We have dogs so the backyard has “grass” mostly clovers at this point. Something cool we’ve noticed since doing the first prairie, lots of seeds have been spilling out into the grass and taking over. This year we are taking over all lawn care (we had very nice lawn dudes but they caused more harm than good sadly) - letting it grow out with the new seedlings. Black eyed Susan, partridge pea, bee balm, columbine, coreopsis, and yarrow are spreading the most successfully without any effort. We have seen 13 or 14 different species of native bees since we have been going native. The amount of birds has easily tripled too. My personal favorite part is the increasing amount of fireflies which bring me tons of joy. A lot of the neighbors gave us weird looks at first (tarps over the grass for 6+ months) but now many are stopping us to ask how we have done this and what the plants are. It’s a lot of work buts it’s very rewarding. The last photo is a 30’ x 100’ section of the front yard that is the newest prairie. So far the coreopsis, partridge pea, and spotted bee balm are up but fingers crossed the rattlesnake master and other seeds make it too! This is just a small taste of what we have done. As more things come into bloom I can share more.